Duty to the Heart
by Emily96
Summary: Bella dies in childbirth and Edward is left to raise Renesmee by himself, when a stranger shows up at the cullen's door one day how will they react?...how will the wolves react?
1. why? How? What Now?

My eyes opened up to a bright light. At first I was blinded. For as long as I could remember, I had not been able to see anything but darkness. It had become a comfort to me in the immeasurable amount of time that I had been surrounded by it. This light was too harsh, it was too intense compared to the dull background I was used to. Yet, as my eyes adjusted, I could start to make out figures. A man held me in his arms. He was someone I had never seen before, of course I had not seen anyone in my life, but I felt like I knew who he was. He looked at me with wonder in his eyes, but there was something else…worry? Pain? I small weak whisper shook me out of my reverie.

"Renesmee…"

When I looked in the direction of the whisper, I saw a pitiful, sickly looking woman lying on a table covered in blood. I cringed away from the sight. The woman held her arms out, gesturing for the man to let her hold me. I was passed from his arms to hers gently. She was very weak; her arms looked very brittle and breakable. Even though I was small, I did not want to move in case I hurt her. Then both of our bodies were shaken violently by an ear splitting cough. I could hear it grating against her lungs.

The man quickly grabbed me out of her grasp, so swiftly I was a little disoriented for a moment. The woman grabbed him by the shirt collar and brought him, along with me, down to her level. Her face was severe. She panted and her body heaved with every breath, but she looked determined. Her voice was barely a whisper when she spoke, but it was commanding.

"Edward…no matter…what happens to…me…you must promise me…that…you will take care of…her. Promise me. PROMISE!" She mustered to scream. It really took it out of her; she fell back on the table. The man named Edward stayed bent down. The woman whispered again. "Do not...follow me… she needs you…more…than I do."

He leaned closer to her and kissed her lips. He moved to her ear, I could not hear what he said, but when his lips moved, it looked a lot like "I promise." His body shook uncontrollably after that. I looked at his face, but not tears came. He was just overcome by dry sobs. I then felt myself being lifted out of the weeping man's arms. I was taken out of the room and the last image before the door shut was the man now kneeling on the floor next to the table with the woman on it.

I cried out in frustration. I wanted to stay. I needed to stay. I needed to know if the woman was alright. I tried to free myself from this blonde man's hands, but he was too strong. He carried me down a flight of stairs where I was greeted by five other people. I was handed to a curly brown-haired woman. I automatically felt comforted by her embrace. She sat down on the couch with me still in her arms. I kept looking up at the ceiling, whishing that I could know what was going on.

"So it really happened?" The woman that was holding me asked the smallest one.

"Yes." That one word seemed to break everyone into pained faces. Some shook like the man upstairs, again with no tears. Some just looked dead and unfeeling.

"I just can't believe she died. After all the things Bella's been through I figured she could handle a pregnancy, no matter how strange." A big muscley guy said shaking his head back and forth.

"Poor Edward." The woman holding me said while turning her head into the shoulder of the man that had carried me downstairs. "You don't think he'll do anything irrational, do you?"

"No, he seemed pretty set in his promise." Said the smallest one. "He'll never be the same though."

They all then stood or sat in silence. So, the woman was dead. How horrible. How was the man upstairs going to survive? He seemed to really love and care for her. I looked around at these people that I did not know. I looked at every individual sad face, seeing how this woman had affected their life. Their heartbreaking tearless faces brought tears to my own eyes. So, I sat there with these strangers and cried for them and for their loss, but most of all I cried for the man that loved her the most.


	2. unexpected visitor

Seven years later:

I was upstairs just listening to my music looking up at the ceiling and smiling. I had just graduated from my virtual high school even though I was only seven. I rolled over to see a framed picture of me and Jacob taken about a year ago. Even though I was six I _**looked**_ maybe about three years younger than my current age of about eighteen. Whatever age I was, I had at least stopped growing.

I turned back to the ceiling. This summer was going to be the ultimate summer. Spending the days down at La Push beach with Jake, shopping with Alice, and going along with whatever crazy antics my uncles came up with.

It was nice being with Jake. When I had first found out that he imprinted on me, I was a little freaked out. I mean I was just a baby when it happened and he knew we were going to be together forever. I wasn't too crazy about the idea, not that he wasn't good enough or anything, it was just the fact that I was so much younger than him. Yet, I gave it a chance and I'm so glad I did. I couldn't imagine having to go through all that dating drama that most people go through.

There was a knock at the door, it was probably Jake so I rolled of the bed and hurried down the stairs. Before I could get to the door, my father, Edward, opened it looking back at me with a little smirk. When the door opened, I was a little shocked to find the complete opposite of Jake at the door. A girl that looked about sixteen or seventeen with brown hair that went to her waist stood at the door. She was short, not Alice short, but maybe 5' 2", 5' 3".

I looked around at my family, they seemed a little tense, but that was just because I had a slower reaction time than they did. I then took notice to her eyes; they were a strange purple color, if I didn't know what that meant I would have thought that her eyes were very pretty. She was one of us, but she drank human blood. The only thing that I found odd was that she cared enough to cover them up with green contacts, must normal vampires don't care.

She was the first to break the silence. "Hello, um I'm Charlie. Do you mind if I come in?"

I knew that my dad's eyes flickered towards me even though I wasn't looking at him. He is always so concerned about me, when I can handle myself perfectly fine. I rolled my eyes at him. Carlisle stepped in.

"Of course you can." He said leading her to the couch that no one was sitting on. "So what brings you here?"

"Well, I came all the way from Italy…" Her face showed that she knew that this was going to create a problem with my family. She was right; I could see out of the corner of my eye that all of my family members tensed up. "I know that sounds bad," she said, "but let me explain. I'm not full vampire if you haven't already found out by the sound of my beating heart. However, I did come here from Voltera, Italy. My father is Aro." Everyone took in a short little breath. "After his little visit here about seven years ago, he got curious and tried to find someone so that he could create me. It took a couple of trial and errors before I was born. My mother died giving birth to me and I grew up surrounded by those terrible windowless walls. The first two or three years of my life was spent running any and all tests on me, so that my father could learn everything there is to know about this "new species" as he called it. He never let me leave, and he never really treated me like a daughter, especially after he got bored with me. I had heard stories and rumors about all of you. It seemed nice and homey. So, I managed to sneak out one night with quite a bit of money from my father, not that he knew, and hopped on the first flight to America. I was hoping that you might allow me to stay here for at least a while, I heard of your diet, and the way you live and seemed much more peaceful." She trailed off into a whisper.

I was moved by her story. Her life seemed to be terrible. I couldn't imagine growing up without a family, without feeling loved.

"Charlie," Esme said with a smile, "You are welcome to stay here forever if you like."

"Really?" Charlie asked

"Of course." Esme said hugging her. It looked like we had yet another person to add to this already huge family.


	3. Life couldn't be that badCould it?

Charlie now stayed in my room with me. Even though our house was huge, surprisingly we didn't have enough rooms, so she bunked with me. It was cool it was like having an extended sleepover. Although rooming with Charlie wasn't all fun and games, we would talk late into the night. I found out she was a pretty deep girl with A LOT of baggage. I couldn't think of a more horrifying life.

The first night she stayed here was a very long night:

_After my father told Charlie the "public" story of our family and she complete understood it, we went up to my room. To the public Charlie would be another adopted child._

_I opened the door to my room and I heard a small gasp beside me. I turned to Charlie's amazed look on her face._

"_What?" I asked._

"_Nothing, it's just, you room is huge!"_

_I laughed "I guess it is kinda big." I led her through the door and then I closed it. As I went to my dresser to get her something to sleep in, she walked over to the bed and sat down. I heard her sigh. I turned around and saw her lying down on the bed with her feet dangling off the side and her arms above her head._

"_Your bed is so comfy." She said with a smile. _

_I smiled back as I handed her the sweatpants and tank top I picked for her. "It's just like any other bed I guess."_

"_Well, I didn't really have a bed; my dad just gave me two blankets. One was to sleep on and one to cover up with." She said looking down at the floor._

_Wow her situation was worse than I thought. She looked back up after a second. "Where is your bathroom?" She asked with a fake smile, I could tell that what she had just said brought back some bad memories for her. I pointed to one of the doors in my room that led right into the bathroom. "Thanks," was all she said as she hurried into the bathroom._

_I changed while she was in there and pulled down the covers to my bed. I got in and sat to wait for her. I wanted to ask more about her past, but at the same time I didn't want to be rude. The door opened and she turned off the light and crawled into bed as well. She gave me and awkward smile and then turned off her light on the bedside table. I turned around and did the same thing. We were silent for a moment; I was trying to muster up the courage to speak to her._

"_So." I said with a little huff. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"_

_She turned around and faced me. She had a tired look on her face, like she didn't want to talk about it. I knew I shouldn't have asked. Yet, she surprised me with her answer. "Shoot."_

"_Well, you mentioned downstairs that your mother died giving birth to you, and I was wondering that if she would have lived, do you think your father would have treated you any differently?"_

_She answered a quick "no." Her voice was a little harsh and I think she realized it, she sighed and went on. "He didn't love her; she was just a means to an end for him. If she would have lived, he probably would have just killed her; she was of no importance."_

_Wow, this was some deep shit. "Yeah my mom died giving birth to me as well, it's always been hard. I always felt like my father blamed me for her death. Even though he says he didn't. I can't help but feel it. My aunt Alice once told me that it was hard for him to leave my mother's body for days. He didn't see me until I was a week old, and even then it was briefly. My grandma Esme tried to get him to hold me, but he wouldn't. Obviously over time that's changed and now he clings to me because I remind him so much of her, and I'm the last bit of her left. He would do anything to keep me safe." I said with a smile. Even though my relationship with my father had started out rocky, it had gotten better, and now I couldn't get rid of him so Jake and I could be alone. Even still my early relationship with my father was nothing compared to hers._

"_Can I ask something else?"_

"_Go for it."_

"_What kind of tests did you father do to you?"_

"_Oh, anything really. He wanted to know what my limits were. What I was immune to, what things hurt me." She trailed off._

"_Hurt you?"_

"_Yeah, um he would have some of his followers hit me until I would pass out from the pain, again to see what my limits were."_

"_Oh my god that's awful." I said covering my mouth with my hand._

"_It wasn't as bad as the shots and drawing of the blood, I hate needles." She said with a shiver._

_This girl had gone through Hell yet she shivered at the thought of needles. I didn't want to push my luck but I had just one more question. "Um, I don't want to seem harsh or unfeeling, but you said that you father got bored with you once he knew everything he could possibly know…Why didn't he…you know, just get rid of you?"_

"_You mean kill me?"_

"_Yeah, I guess."_

"_Well, I thought the same myself, but I guess he must have had some sort of natural attachment to me, or not. He might have just wanted me for my powers. I'm a shield; I can block mental and physical abilities…" I interrupted her._

"_Wait, so my father can't read you mind and my aunt Alice can't see your future and my uncle Jasper can't change you moods?"_

"_I guess." She shrugged; of course she didn't know their powers, so she wouldn't have know that she was blocking them._

"_I'm sorry for interrupting, go on."_

_She looked like she wasn't sure if she wanted to tell me the next part. "Well, my power was great for him and all, but…probably the biggest reason he let me live was because I was a source of entertainment for all of his male followers." _

"_What like they would take out their frustrations out on you?"_

"_No more like their sexual needs." Her voice sounded strangled, she was trying to hold back tears._

"_Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked." I said rubbing her arm._

"_No it's ok." She sniffed. "Demetri, Alec, and Felix were probably the worst out of them all, at least they were the most frequent. I mean I was the perfect person for the job. They had tried with human women but they were too frail and broke easily as Felix had described it to me once when I had asked him why he was doing this to me. I'm less breakable, but as he put it I still had the warmth and softness of a human body." She shivered and started to fully shake with tears. I wrapped my arms around her and just held her until she fell asleep._

_I turned on my side and faced the wall. All I could think was…YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!_


	4. Beach Days and Bathing Suits

It had been a week since Charlie had showed up at our door. Her scary stories had been told to everyone and they were all as shocked and terrified as I had been. Everyone was very curious of her gift, except Alice she was just frustrated. It made my dad kind of sad though because it reminded him of my mom, but he did a good job at hiding it from everyone else. Emmett of course asked a stupid question as I had explained her gift. "Wait so she blocks physical attacks, like no one can touch her?" He asked with slight disappointment. "No." Charlie said. "It's like with Alice the future is an obtainable or physical thing, just like my emotions. So it's those kinds of physical things, not actual physical contact. So you could still touch me or punch me or whatever." She explained. That shut up Emmett up for at least a little bit, as Esme went over to hug her, probably over the fact that Charlie mentioned being punched or something.

Charlie was in the bathroom getting ready. We had already bought her new clothes and everything else she could have possibly wanted. Alice and Rosalie insisted on the shopping spree. She seemed to still be a little awkward and unsure of herself around my family. I didn't really get it because we were nothing but nice to her. I guess it was still all so new to her, and I guess my family can be a little overbearing sometimes. She would get used to it eventually.

I hummed to myself as I started packing my stuff into a little beach bag. Jacob had invited me to come down for a beach day and then a bonfire later tonight with the rest of the pack. I loved all of the wolves; they were like my second family.

I had just pulled open the drawer that had my bathing suit in it when my dad knocked on the door. I looked up and smiled at him.

"Whatsup?" I asked him as I pushed things aside until I found what I was looking for. I tried to hide it from my dad as best as I could. It was my most revealing bathing suit I owned. Rosalie had bought it for me. It was a black string bikini with a little red heart on the upper right corner of the butt. I could see my efforts were futile. He grabbed it from my hands in literally a heartbeat. I jumped back a few feet.

"What is this?" He asked holding it away from him like it had some sort of foul smell to it.

"It's a bathing suit." I said pointing out the obvious.

"Yes I know that, but where did you get it?"

"Rosalie bought it for me." I knew I was throwing Rose under the bus, but she would gladly take a hit from a bus for me.

"ROSALIE!" He yelled, even though he didn't have to. She was at the door in a second with a curious/pissed off look on her face.

"What?" She asked impatiently.

"Why would you buy such an inappropriate thing for my baby girl?"

"'Cause she's not a baby anymore, she's a woman." She said with an adoring smile towards me. I returned it but it soon faltered when my father gave me a glaring look.

"She's seven."

"But she looks eighteen. Give it a rest Edward, you have to let go sometime."

"Yes, but that day is not today, not while she's wearing this ridiculous bathing suit."

"Ugh." I sighed and grabbed it out of his hand and shoved it back in the drawer and grabbed a less revealing suit and threw it in my bag. "Better?"

"Much." He turned to leave, but noticed something that I hadn't because I was so wrapped up in the argument we had just had two seconds ago.

Charlie must have come out to see what all the commotion was about. She had a slight smile on her face, and her body shook with silent laughter. I smiled back at her.

"Why don't you take Charlie with you? It'll get her out of the house and she can meet the guys." My dad offered.

I was a little hesitant. Not that I didn't want Charlie to come, it was just that I was a little unsure as to how well the wolves would take it. "S-sure." I stammered. I rummaged through my closet to find another beach bag. She pulled out her own bathing suit, a purple polka dotted strapless bikini, which of course my father would have no problem with her wearing that, but if I even looked at it too long I'm sure he would freak.

We were soon walking out the door. "Now I'm going to warn you, these guys are wolves and they exist to destroy vampires. The only reason they cooperate with us is because one, we don't drink human blood, and two Jacob, the leader of the pack, imprinted on me." I explained while blushing. "They've grown used to me and are now my best friends, but they might not take on to you right away. Just don't take it personally. They mean no harm and plus, even if they did, I wouldn't let them."

She was quiet for a moment and then looked up at me. "It can't be that bad." She said with a smile.

I gave her a weak one in return. Unsure about how the rest of this day was going to pan out.


	5. Yikes

The sun was setting as we arrived. The beach was beautiful, but not what I had expected a beach to look like. I pictured bleached white sand and beautiful blue and green water. Instead I got mostly rocks and what sand there was, it was dark, almost black, and the water was a light gray with only small traces of green and blue in it. Yet, the neutral and darker colors were beautiful in their own way. I also, for the first time saw the wolves. Of course they weren't in their wolf forms, but just seeing them in their human forms, made me want to never see them as wolves. They were huge, dark skinned and dark haired. Pretty much all of them had the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going for them. It was such a nice contrast to the pale pasty white that I was used to.

I looked over at Renesmee, she look so relaxed, but at the same time nervous and tense. "Hey, are you alright?" I asked.

She looked down at me. "Hmm, what?... Oh yeah I'm fine." She said with a big smile. This confused me even more. If she was giving me a genuine smile like everything was fine, why did her choice of words say otherwise?

"Really?" I pressed.

"Well," she continued "I'm just excited to see Jacob, but at the same time I'm really nervous about how they're going to treat you. I mean, I wouldn't want them to hurt you, which should be enough, but if it's not, I'm only one little person against ten wolves." She said with a more nervous smile. "But, don't worry; I think they're going to like you."

_Yeah, I just bet they will_ I thought to myself. As we approached the wolves, my heart began to race even faster than normal, which should be a good thing because they should be able to hear my heart then and figure I am human. Plus, it was getting dark out and they probably couldn't see me as well…Except now that I think of it Renesmee did say that they have really good sight…Damn. Ugh and I'm sure they can smell me a mile away, but maybe they'll just think it's Renesmee. I was just about to make a run for it, when we were right there by the fire. One of them was bending over to start it.

One of them, I presumed was Jacob came running over to Renesmee and picked her up into a huge hug, and before setting her down kissed her on the nose. _Aww, that was cute_. I smiled to myself. After staring into each other's eyes for a bit, Jacob seemed to snap out of his trance long enough to ask:

"Who's this?"

"This is Charlie," Renesmee introduced me. "She's just like me, part vampire, part human." I held my breath for that part, but they didn't seem too phased by any of it, so I let out a big sigh. Maybe I was overreacting; they all didn't seem too bad. "She is living with us now, she came from the Volturi." The mood did a complete one-eighty. All of a sudden everyone was tense. Jacob threw Renesmee behind his back as if to protect her from me.

"Why did you take her in, did your family not learn anything about the Volturi the last time they visited?" Jacob all about screamed.

"Chill Jacob, it's not that big of a deal. She hated her life there. So, she wanted to try something different." Renesmee explained calmly coming out from behind Jacob to put her arm around me, and as she did, it was like all of them almost shivered by the thought of even touching me.

"Why should you or any of us believe her?" One of the other's said. "She could be a spy or something?" I began to panic they looked like they were about to hurt me, except for the one trying to start the fire; he didn't even seem to notice this whole fiasco.

"Oh come on Paul, she's not a spy. I trust her, my family trusts, her so you guys should trust her. She's a really nice person, if you give her a chance." Renesmee said crossing her arms. She looked at Jacob menacingly. He sighed and hugged her again. He put out his hand towards me.

"Hi, I'm Jacob." I tentatively put my hand into his, which was about three times the size of mine, and he shook it briskly once. At least the mood had lightened a little bit. I sat down next to Renesmee and everyone else introduced themselves grudgingly. I met Sam, Emily, Paul, Rachel, Jared, Kim, Quil, Claire, Embry, Leah, Brady, and Collin.

The one that had been making the fire the whole time got up and turned around, and sat right next to me. I could feel the immense heat coming from his body and it felt amazing because the sun had gone down and it was getting really cold, especially for summer. I just wanted to lean against him, which was an impulse I had to refrain from doing because he would probably flip shit. I resigned myself to looking up at him because he towered over me. I saw the most handsome face out of the whole bunch. He looked down at me, his eyes were chocolaty brown that were so warm which matched perfectly with his temperature.

"Hi I'm Charlie." I said shyly. I gave him my best smile. He looked down at me with this pained/angry look in his eye.

"Seth." He said brushing me off and turned to talk to Paul who was sitting next to him.

_Wow, I was just trying to be nice_. I thought to myself_, but I guess it's not different then the others. Yet, why does it hurt more?_


End file.
